Author Archives: Biju Kumar

Global leader in domain names and Internet security VeriSign on Wednesday announced that the fourth quarter of 2017 saw approximately 1.7 million domain name registrations. With this, the total number of domain name registrations reached approximately 332.4 million across all top-level domains (TLDs). New “.com” and “.net” domain name registrations totalled 9 million during 2017…

Reliance JioInfocomm, the 4G entrant will invest another Rs 10,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh over the next three years, having already invested over Rs 20,000 crore to build the digital infrastructure, Reliance Industries chairman MukeshAmbani said on Wednesday. The telco is also aiming to create over one lakh sustainable livelihood opportunities in the state in…

KASARGOD: In a massive push to broadband connectivity in the state, the Cable Operators Association (COA) – the largest organisation of independent cable TV operators in Kerala – said it will lay optical fibre across the state and ‘aggressively’ promote its broadband connection.

HYDERABAD: As Artificial Intelligence (AI) found a place in this year’s Union Budget and Niti Ayog is set to establish a programme on AI, the topic dominated most of the sessions and talks at the WCIT-2018 and NASSCOM ILF on Monday.

HYDERABAD:With debate raging over multinational companies storing data generated by Indians in servers located outside the country, and Supreme Court sending notices to Facebook and WhatsApp last year over lack of data localisation, an executive from Facebook speaking at a session on data digital trade and cross-border data flow during the World Congress on Information…

HYDERABAD: Global technology major Adobe Systems will soon set up an advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab in Hyderabad, said the company’s chief executive Shantanu Narayen during a meeting with IT minister KT Rama Rao on the sidelines of the three-day World Congress on Information Technology that was inaugurated in Hyderabad on Monday.

HYDERABAD: While governments have a big role to play in innovation, there comes a point where governments will have to step back and let free markets do their jobs, according to a high powered panel which included the likes of Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala and Cap Gemini chairman Paul Hermelini. Speaking on the role that…

HYDERABAD:The inexorable rise of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Automation have been taking a toll on jobs in India’s flagship IT services industry. Now, an online platform built by Nasscom called FutureSkills will attempt to address the issue of inadequately skilled manpower. Their plan is to reskill or upskill half of India’s 4 million…

This issue’s coverage of Amazon and Paytm is Part 2 in our E-com series. Through statistical output, diagrams and explanatory we highlight the tax avoidance conduct of these companies and in the case of Amazon, a reckless breach of FDI regulations governing inventory and the marketplace.

First, let’s look at the FDI regulations in India related to e-commerce. In India 100 pc FDI is permitted in B2B e-commerce. However, FDI was not permitted in B2C e-commerce earlier (till Mar 2016). But, many companies had started selling on B2C model. So the matter landed in Delhi High Court and the Court directed investigations into 21 e-com websites. During the pendency of the case, in March 2016, FDI norms were changed and 100 pc FDI was allowed in the marketplace, the restrictions on inventory were retained. The notification was issued on March 9, 2017.

A study of Amazon’s share pattern shows that India operation has 17 companies registered in India. Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd, operates the marketplace. Another entity to watch out for is Cloudtail India Pvt Ltd. While 100 pc FDI for marketplace was allowed, government disallowed dominance of one seller. The total sales of one vendor, was capped at 25 pc.